Ex-TOR boss Asante Berko on trial in US over $1m bribes to Ghana officials

Former Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) Managing Director Asante Berko has gone on trial in the United States over allegations that he paid more than $1 million in bribes to Ghanaian public officials to facilitate a Turkish company’s power project in Ghana.

Berko, 52, a former Goldman Sachs executive and dual U.S.-Ghanaian citizen, appeared before a federal jury in Brooklyn this week, with the trial beginning on Tuesday.

U.S. prosecutors allege that between 2014 and 2017, Berko participated in a scheme to pay bribes to Ghanaian government officials and members of Parliament in exchange for support for a Turkish energy firm’s proposal to develop and operate a power plant in the country. They claim he used his position at Goldman Sachs to help advance the transaction.

He has been charged with conspiracy to violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), substantive violations of the Act, and money laundering. Berko has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The most serious offence carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

The case has been years in the making. U.S. regulators first filed a civil enforcement action against Berko in 2020—the same year he was appointed Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery.

He was later arrested in London in 2022 following a U.S. federal indictment and was extradited to the United States in 2024 to face trial.

The power project at the centre of the case has since been completed. The Aksa power plant at Ahwomaso, which the alleged bribery scheme was intended to support, has been connected to Ghana’s national electricity grid and is now operational.

Despite the allegations, no Ghanaian public official has been prosecuted in connection with the alleged bribery. Berko continues to deny any wrongdoing as the trial proceeds.